Situational awareness system with topical interest profile building using location tracking information

ABSTRACT

A system for building topical interest profiles for members of a situational awareness system using location tracking information. Members who participate in the system activate location tracking on their mobile communication devices and provide the system with real-time access to the location tracking data. The situational awareness system analyzes a member&#39;s location tracking data, detects potential topics of interest for the member based on the location tracking data, and then prompts the member to update their profile data to include the detects potential topics of interest. If the member adds a suggested topic to their profile, the situational awareness system includes the member in situational awareness information provided to requesters seeking information concerning members interested in the added topic. The situational awareness system may also direct online queries to the member relating to the added topic and increase the member&#39;s priority for participating in online queries.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 62/332,993 entitled “Situational Awareness System” filed May 6,2016; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/290,639 entitled“Situational Awareness System” filed Oct. 11, 2017, which areincorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to online situational awareness systemsusing location reporting mobile communication devices such assmartphones and, more particularly, to a system for building topicalinterest profiles for members of the situational awareness system.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Direct marketing is a $150+ billion industry, while market research andpolling account for another $40+ billion each year. Increasing use ofonline commerce and social media creates new opportunities and presentsnew challenges for direct marketing and market research. Cost effectivedirect marketing and market research requires effective and efficienttechniques for identifying the most appropriate target audience for eachparticular direct communication project and ensuring that the directcommunication recipients actually read the polling or marketinginformation delivered to them. Properly identifying and motivating thetarget audience is often more important, and expensive, than locatingraw address data to work with. While social media has experiencedtremendous growth and contains a wealth of information concerningpotential target audiences, direct marketing systems have not beendeveloped to leverage this resource to advance market research andpolling objectives.

Effective advertising and market research continue to be the keystonesof a successful business. Despite continuing efforts to utilize onlineresources effectively, prior approaches to online market research andpolling have been highly inaccurate with cost-prohibitive technicalbarriers preventing more accurate results. In addition, prior attemptsto incorporate online resources into advertising have experienced verypoor click-through and response rates. Existing technology forincorporating social media into market research and polling remainscumbersome and inaccurate. As a result, the current lack of affordableand effective direct marketing and research platforms presents a majorbarrier to entry for many companies, especially small and medium-sizedbusinesses, which cannot afford to expend the vast sums necessary toreach their target audiences.

More generally, there is a further need for situational awareness of thedemographic makeup and topical interests of people located in differentgeographic areas. This would allow very specific targeting andassessment of the size of targeted market segments before going to theexpense of conducting promotional and market research activities. Thistype of situational awareness system would present useful informationfor a wide range of purposes other than advertising and market researchactivities.

There is, therefore, a continuing need for improved situationalawareness systems and, more specifically, a situational awareness systemto enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of market research andpolling systems.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure meets the needs described above in a system forbuilding topical interest profiles for members of a situationalawareness system using location tracking information. Members whoparticipate in the system activate location tracking on their mobiledevices and provide the system with real-time access to the locationtracking data. The situational awareness system analyzes a member'slocation tracking data, detects potential topics of interest for themember based on the location tracking data, and then prompts the memberto update their profile data to include the detected potential topics ofinterest. If the member adds a suggested topic to their profile, thesituational awareness system includes the member in situationalawareness information provided to requesters seeking informationconcerning members interested in the added topic. The situationalawareness system may also direct online queries to the member relatingto the added topic and increase the member's priority for participatingin online queries. The member may also authorize communication of themember's direct contact information to requesters of situationalawareness information to facilitate further interaction by users of thesystem. The member has a financial incentive to authorize locationtracking and add topics of interest to their profile in order toincrease their ability to earn compensation by participating incompensation-based online queries.

In view of the foregoing, it will be appreciated that the presentdisclosure provides an improved situational awareness system. Thespecific systems and techniques for accomplishing the advantagesdescribed above will become apparent from the following detaileddescription of the embodiments and the appended drawings and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a conceptual illustration of a situational awareness system.

FIG. 2 is a logic flow diagram for provisioning the situationalawareness system.

FIG. 3 is a logic flow diagram for operating the situational awarenesssystem.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual illustration of a menu-driven graphical userinterface panel for defining a geographical area of interest in thesituational awareness system.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual illustration of a menu-driven graphical userinterface panel for defining personal identity attribute data ofinterest in the situational awareness system.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual illustration of a menu-driven graphical userinterface panel for defining a subject matter area of interest in thesituational awareness system.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual illustration of a menu-driven graphical userinterface panel for defining an online query in the situationalawareness system.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual illustration of a menu-driven graphical userinterface panel for opt-in participation in online queries in thesituational interest awareness system.

FIG. 9 is a conceptual illustration of graphical presentation of onlinequery results in the situational awareness system.

FIG. 10 is a conceptual illustration of an alternate graphicalpresentation of online query results in the situational awarenesssystem.

FIG. 11 is a logic flow diagram for prompting a member to update theirmember profile based on monitored location data to participate insituational awareness services and increase their online query priority.

FIG. 12 is a conceptual illustration of a menu-driven graphical userinterface panel for prompting a member to update their member profilebased on monitored location data to increase their online querypriority.

FIG. 13 is a logic flow diagram for creating and using an aggregatelocation-aware member profile database to provide geographic, personaldata and subject matter of interest awareness.

FIG. 14 is a conceptual illustration of a system for providing securitywhen providing access to member profile data.

FIG. 15 is a logic flow diagram for providing security when decidingwhether to including a member's profile data in situational awarenessinformation provided in response to a situational awareness request.

FIG. 16 is a logic flow diagram for utilizing the situational awarenesssystem as an airline traveler tracking system.

FIG. 17 is a conceptual illustration of a traveler information userinterface screen in the airline traveler tracking system.

FIG. 18 is a conceptual illustration of a tracked party information userinterface screen in the airline traveler tracking system.

FIG. 19 is a conceptual illustration of a user interface screen for atraveler awareness and communication feature of the situationalawareness system.

FIG. 20 is a logic flow diagram for the traveler awareness andcommunication feature of the situational awareness system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

The present disclosure expands upon the market research and pollingsystem described in U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/604,988 andU.S. application Ser. Nos. 13/781,744 and 14/285,803, which claimspriority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/604,988 entitled“Systems and Methods for Collecting Marketing and Polling Data,” filedFeb. 29, 2012. These applications are incorporated by reference. U.S.application Ser. No. 13/781,744 describes a permission-based membershipmarket research and polling system referred to as the “instant responsesystem” that provides per-response compensation to members that provideresponses to online queries, which are typically transmitted throughtext messages to members' smartphones. U.S. application Ser. No.14/285,803 is directed to aspects of the user interface for the instantresponse system. The subject matter of these applications will only besummarized briefly to set the stage for the present disclosure, whichbuilds on the foundation provided by the prior applications. Thisapplication claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No.62/332,993 entitled “Situational Awareness System” filed May 6, 2016;and is a divisional application with most of the specification in commonwith U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/290,639 entitled “SituationalAwareness System” filed Oct. 11, 2017, which are also incorporated byreference.

The Instant Response System

The instant response system is a compensation driven, permission basedmarketing and polling system that utilizes per-response member querycompensation, social media interfacing, and dynamic polling to producedesired personal data results with the minimum number of memberrequests. An illustrative example of the technology is referred to asthe “1Q® instant response system” or more briefly as the “1Q system.”While the 1Q system may be used for a wide range of objectives, such asdirect marketing, market research surveys, polling, focus groups, andany other marketing or research objective relying on bulk responses todirect member communications, the description of the system refers toonline queries (also referred to as surveys or polls) as an illustrativeapplication of the technology. It will be appreciated that the 1Q systemcan be readily adapted to other direct response objectives by changingthe content of the member communications.

The 1Q instant response system is permission based through a membershipsystem in which members agree to participate by providing shortturn-around anonymous responses to online queries in exchange forper-response compensation. Customers utilize the instant response systemto conduct online queries of the members in exchange for a per-responsecompensation. The provider of the instant response system (“1Q systemoperator”) earns the difference between the compensation received fromthe customer and the payments made to the member as compensation foroperating the instant response system. For example, the customers maypay two dollars for each response received, while the members may bepaid one dollar for each response provided. While other types of feesand payments may be utilized, the per-response compensation model iseasy to understand and has been found to be highly effective inmotivating participation by both members and customers on a basis thatis transparent and easily measured and tracked by all involved.

Members of the instant response system provide permission to accesstheir profile data (also referred to as personal identity attributedata), which may include real-time location data, through access totheir social media profiles. Alternatively, member profile data may bestored in an instant response profile maintained by an app loaded ontotheir smartphones (e.g., the “1Q App”). Members are encouraged toprovide access to their profile data, and increase the detail of thepersonal data and subject matter of interest included in their profiles,in exchange for earning compensation by participating in online queries.The situational awareness system may affirmatively prompt members toincrease the detail in their data profiles, participate in onlinequeries, and provide location data in order to improve their querypriority and thus increase their ability to earn compensation byanswering queries. Members may retain their compensation or designate acharity to receive the compensation earned by responding to onlinequeries.

In order to participate in the compensation system, each member entersinto a marketing participation agreement and provides the 1Q systemoperator with personal data information about the member, such as age,address, education, family, income, purchasing preferences, and soforth. The member is encouraged to provide greater levels of personaldata and subject matter of interestdata to increase the likelihood theywill be selected to participate in online queries. While membershipquestionnaires may run the range from basic to highly involved, the 1Qsystem may only request a bare minimum of information, such as themember's name and phone number, along with authorization to obtainadditional member profile information from their social media resources,such as Facebook®. Members may also authorize 1Q to access and utilizeinformation about the member from public resources, such as Equifax®.Members are encouraged to enter advanced personal data information intotheir social media resources and may, for example, create a “1Q” sectionspecifically designed to contain member supplied information intendingthat information to be used by 1Q to determine their suitability anddesire to be included in online queries relating to different areas ofpotential inquiry.

Advanced personal data and subject matter of interest profile data mayinclude information such as professional information, areas ofprofessional interest, areas of recreational interest, areas ofexpertise, hobbies, family information, political affiliations,associations, automobiles, vacation locations, preferred readingmaterials, major products or services recently purchased, major productsor services they intend to purchase in the near future, healthinformation, etc. While 1Q will keep all of the member's profileinformation and online query responses strictly confidential unless themember specifically authorizes disclosure, all of this personal datainformation as well as their prior online query response history can beused to anonymously target the member for online query participation.Members are therefore motivated to provide higher levels of personaldata and subject matter of interest information to increase thelikelihood that they will be selected to receive online queries based onthe profile data provided. The personal data and subject matter ofinterestdata is contained in a member profile stored as part of theinstant response system, where it can be used to target the member as anonline query recipient. In this manner, the instant response systemaccumulates a great deal of personal data information about its memberswhile simultaneously obtaining authorization to use this information foronline queries, targeted promotions and market research purposes.

Members are also encouraged to allow the 1Q system operators toautomatically post whenever the member receives compensation from 1Q ontheir social media resource. Although the fact of compensation isconsidered to be an effective posting, additional compensation relatedinformation may be automatically posted if desired, such as the amountof compensation, the number of online queries, the duration ofmembership, and so forth. Members may also authorize advanced featuressuch as “friend tracking” and “location tracking” so that the number offriends on their site and their geographical location may be used asonline query selection criteria. The member may also authorize an onlinequery compensation “hot link” to the instant response system where theamount of online query compensation paid to the member is continuallyupdated by the instant response system. Posting the fact of the member'sparticipation in the 1Q system and member's online query compensation onsocial media provides effective advertising for the 1Q system providermotivating others to join as members. These and other social mediafactors can be tracked and used as ranking parameters to increase themember's priority as a potential online query recipient, therebyincreasing the member's income potential through online queryparticipation.

The 1Q system utilizes a dynamic polling algorithm that allows the 1Qonline query results to satisfy online query constraints and veryclosely match target personal data defined by an online query requestwith a minimal number of online query responses. The online queryconstraints and target personal data provided by the customers as partof the online query request are typically obtained from actual personaldata resources. The 1Q dynamic polling algorithm allows the online queryto “hone in” on the desired personal data results with a minimal numberof online query requests by submitting the requests to members formingthe target audience in a priority order, computing the residual targetpersonal data as online query results roll in, and continually adjustingthe target audience to match the residual target personal data as theonline query progresses. This allows the 1Q system to iteratively narrowthe target audience to those members having the increasingly precisepersonal data needed to meet the target personal data as the onlinequery progresses toward completion.

While dynamically converging on the target personal datas as describedabove, the 1Q system ranks the members in a priority order for inclusionin the online query using a number of weighting factors that take anumber of factors into consideration in the weighting process. Theweighting factors include a number of “system factors” that areconsidered beneficial to the 1Q system operator by encouragingmembership growth and participation, along with a number of “customerfactors” that are considered beneficial to completion of the onlinequery with a minimum of requests by closely matching the target audienceto the residual target personal data. The weighting is progressivelyshifted from system factors to customer factors as the online queryprogresses to meet both sets of objectives while fulfilling the onlinequery request with a minimum number of online query requests.

The 1Q system may produce categorized online queries with multivariaterelationships. Every poll specifies a number of personal data categorieswith defined criteria. To provide a simple example, a particular onlinequery may specify age, geographic region, and ethnic race as personaldata categories, with each category defining four criteria. A pollwithout multivariate relationships requires only that the overall onlinequery results meet these personal data criteria. Multivariaterelationships, on the other hand, specify the personal data results forthe criteria within each category. Expanding the preceding example intoa multivariate example, each “age” category has its own personal datacomplex of geography and race factors, each “geography” category has itsown personal data complex of age and race factors, and each “rage”category has its own personal data complex of age and race factors.

Conducting a poll to closely match target personal datas withmultivariate relationships is extremely challenging because theinterrelating criteria result in a giant jigsaw puzzle requiring, forexample, 5000 online queries to obtain the “right” 1000 responses thatmatch the multivariate relationships of the target personal data. Thereare no polling systems currently available that are designed to producepoll results that closely match target personal data with multivariaterelationships. To meet this challenge, the 1Q system includes a dynamicpolling algorithm that matches target personal data with multivariaterelationships within a defined margin of error, or presents the bestavailable results, though the dynamic polling procedure. For example,the 1Q system may alert the customer, and provide the best availableresponse, when the member database is simply not large enough toprecisely match the multivariate personal data makeup of a national pollfor a country of interest within the desired margin of error. Inaddition, the 1Q system may alert the customer, and provide the bestavailable response, when an attempt to converge on a specificmultivariate personal data makeup, within a specific margin of error,reaches a specified maximum online query time or number or responses.

Use of the 1Q system by poll designers and poll respondents isfacilitated and encouraged by a user-friendly, menu-driven userinterface system typically accessed with a conventional browser over anInternet connection. Thus any user with a browser and an Internetconnection may participate as poll designers and/or poll respondents,although prior registration is typically required at least for pollrespondents. A specific example of the user interface technology isfurther described below with reference to the appended figures, in whichan online query (also referred to as a poll) is described as anillustrative example of the technology. Direct response sales, focusgroups, political polls, and other direct response objectives may alsobe accomplished as a matter of design choice.

The Situational Awareness System

One of the unique aspects of the 1Q instant response system is theability of members and customers to learn “situational awareness”information about other members around them without knowing specificallywho those people are. Customers utilize a menu-driven system to gainsituational awareness by identifying target member segments andreceiving situational awareness information about the target membersegments. Target member segments are defined by specifying one or moreof a geographical area of interest, a personal data profile of interest,and a subject matter area of interest. The system identifies memberscorresponding to the target member segments and displays situationalawareness data, such as personal data statistics for the target membersegment, to the customer. The situational awareness data is typicallydisplayed on a graphical representation of the geographic area ofinterest, typically superimposed on an underlying map. The customer maythen create and broadcast promotional offers or online queries to thetarget member segment in accordance with selected query parameters.Customers typically pay for the promotional offers and online queries,and members receive compensation for answering the queries, on aper-response basis. Providing the customer with situational awarenessinformation prior to issuing a query allows the customer to assess thesize of a very tightly defined target member audience and set queryparameters prior to issuing any promotional offers or online queries.

Customers utilize member profile data to identify and qualify membersfor participation in promotional offers and online queries based on oneor more of real-time location, personal data, and subject matter ofinterest data for the members obtained from their member data profiles,which may be continually updated social media profiles. Customers areencouraged to conduct market research through the situational awarenesssystem to obtain online query results through highly targeted memberaudiences at greatly reduced costs compared to conventional marketresearch techniques. Fully menu-driven member enrollment, customerenrollment, target member segment definition, online queryimplementation, result reporting, and automatic payment features allowthe member and customer base of the situational awareness system to growautonomously (and potentially virally) without interaction by a humanadministrator on a member-by-member, customer-by-customer, orquery-by-query basis.

Ongoing successful deployment of the situational awareness systemresults in a large and constantly growing membership base that providespermission-based, real-time access to member profile data includinggeographic, personal data, and subject matter of interest data for alarge database of participating members. Members who are interested inearning compensation through the situational awareness system have afinancial incentive to activate location tracking and provide highlydetailed profile data that customers can use to direct highly targetedonline queries and promotions to members with very specific personaldata and subject matter areas of interest. These members have a similarfinancial incentive to provide location awareness, typically throughonline access to their social medial location feature, in order toreceive geographically targeted online queries. For example, members ata sporting event can provide their real-time location data to thesituational awareness system, and potentially indicate their teampreference in their social media profile, in order to receive onlinequeries and promotional offers directed specifically to fans of saidteam at the sporting event. Since the audience is highly targeted,sponsors can be expected to be able to afford more lucrative promotions.Online queries about the desire for future tickets, booster events, andfan clubs can then be directed to a highly qualified specific targetmember segment. Promotional offers can likewise be directed to thetarget member segment, such as discounts for future ticket sales, seasonticket discounts, team clothing offers, post-game dining coupons, and soforth.

The instant response system working with member devices providinggeographic location data can be used to provide situational awarenessconcerning members in a particular geographic area of interestregardless of whether the system is also used to send online queries orpromotions to such members. Moreover, once a rich database ofsituational awareness system members has been developed, the membershipcan be utilized as a representative sample of the public at large. Thisprovides opportunities for customers to glean generally applicablegeographic, personal data and subject matter of interest awareness fromthe data provided by those members that have authorized access to theirprofiles. Situational awareness may therefore be highly usefulregardless of whether promotions or online queries are also transmitted.For example, a member looking for a sports bar can quickly find out ifthe patrons in a particular establishment are predominantly fans of oneteam or another. As another example, a member looking for nightclub canquickly glean an indication of the age profile and male-to-female ratiofor patrons in a particular establishment. Similarly, a customerinterested in conducting a direct-mail campaign can quickly identify zipcodes with desired personal data characteristics. The situationalawareness system may also be used to revolutionize political polling,improve television ratings, provide similar ratings for onlineentertainment resources, track medical patients, track and locate lostchildren or members of other groups, communicate with productpurchasers, facilitate meet-up groups, track and communicate withmembers of specific groups. and so forth. Online queries and other typesof location-based services, such as promotions, chat, meet-up and soforth can then be leveraged from the geographic, personal data andsubject matter of interest awareness provided by the situationalawareness system.

Geographic, personal data and subject matter of interest awareness isaccomplished using geo-location technology, where a customer or membercan set a geographic boundary to identify all members of the situationalawareness system within a certain geographical area, such as a radius of1000 feet of where they are standing. Other types of geographic areas ofinterest may be a selected political subdivision (e.g., state, city,county, zip code) or a selected type of establishment (e.g., a stadium,restaurant, office building, etc.). These geographic definitions canalso be combined to define compound geographic areas of interest, suchas members on “golf courses in the state of Tennessee”; members in“national parks in the state of Maine”; members in “night clubs inChicago” and so forth. The requester may also specify personal datacriteria, such as gender, age category, education level, employmentstatus, income level, etc. Subject matter of interest information mayinclude detailed social media criteria, such as sports team preference,hobbies, age of children, type of automobile, and the like. Thiscombination of geographic, personal data, and subject matter of interestcriteria allows a target member segment to be defined and fine-tunedwith a great deal of specificity.

A requester may also specify a particular subject matter of interest foronline queries, such as political election subject matters, health andfitness subject matters, and so forth. Member participation in onlinequeries may require interested members to “opt-in” to limit querydistribution to members that are (a) qualified based on geographic andpersonal data criteria, (b) have indicated an interest in responding toonline queries on the particular subject matter of interest in exchangefor the designated compensation, and (c) meet certain security criteria.This greatly increases the efficiency and effectiveness, while reducingthe cost and imposition of unwanted online communications on members whoare not interested in participating.

Obtaining geographic, personal data and subject matter of interestawareness can be a free component provided as a benefit to registeredmembers and customers, configured to occur prior to the payment screenrequired for online query or promotion distribution. This allows acustomer or member to be charged if they send a message to the targetmember segment, which can be further limited to an opt-in member segmentmeeting certain criteria who have also authorized (opted-in) onlinequeries on the specific subject matter of interest. As the situationalawareness system grows to the point where the membership becomesgenerally ubiquitous and representative of the population in general,situational awareness becomes a truly revolutionary form of socialnetworking offering the capability to know detailed information aboutthe people who surround you, without knowing who, specifically, theyare.

The opportunities for this type of situational awareness system areextensive and far reaching, ranging from individuals trying to findrecreational venues, to companies trying to find potential customers,and political parties trying to identify potential voters to providejust a few illustrative categories of applicability. As a specificexample, a patron in a sports bar can find out how many Buffalo Billsfans there are within 50 feet of where he is standing. A speaker at aconference could find out what percentage of his audience has householdincomes above $250,000. Before leaving home, someone can find out theapproximate male/female ratio at two different nightclubs they areconsidering visiting. Where there might be data missing or the sampleset may not be large enough, location based services can be used to fillin the gaps. For instance, although everyone on a golf course may not bea 1Q member, if they are on the golf course, it is a good bet that theyare a golfer. Furthermore, a historical database member location andother profile data that have visited a particular nightclub over aprevious period of time can also be used or searched to help determine apersonal data where live data may not be conclusive. Therefore, anindication that there is a mobile device in a specific area (e.g., on agolf course) can further provide data about a specific personal data.Furthermore, there could be 1Q members who are currently on a golfcourse but who have not self-identified as golfers or their social mediaprofiles do not identify them as golfers. In this scenario, theaforementioned 1Q members could be listed as a golfer or labeled with ahigh probability of being a golfer when an online query comes in for allpersons who are golfers and who are actually on/near the golf course.Therefore, as the database of available member profiles grows, so doesthe ability to learn various information about a geographically definedpopulous.

Additionally, a member could set their smartphone to vibrate or othertype of notification any time they are within a specific distance of anysegmented group. For example, a member could set his phone to notify himwhen he is within a certain range or number of people who work for thesame company, belong to the same meet-up group, have children in thesame school class or play on the same sports team, have a common medicalcondition, have read “Fifty Shades of Gray,” or have any other personaldata or subject matter of interest criteria reflected in the profiledata of members of the system. As a security measure, requesters mayonly be provided with situational awareness data for groups in whichthey are enrolled. As another feature, the data query radius can bestatic or dynamic. A static query can say, please tell me how manypersons are “Fifty Shades of Gray” fans within a 10-mile radius. A“reverse query” feature may also be configured to return an answer to aquery such as “find the radius of the closest 100 Denver Bronco fans.””

In another embodiment, the payment and incentive can be more granular.For instance, a first 1Q member who walks into a building can send anonline query to determine “who are the active stock market investors inthis building.” A second 1Q member who is an active stock marketinvestor currently located in that particular building receives a pingthat says “there is a request for active stock market investors, wouldyou like to opt-in to receive online queries directed to active stockmarket investors, yes or no?” If the second 1Q member answers “yes,”then his or her social media profile or direct contact information maybe presented to the first 1Q member along with an option to pay to senda specific online query or other inquiry (e.g., promotional offer,invitation for a consultation) to the second 1Q member. The first andsecond 1Q members may also be prompted to activate a “chat” session tocommunicate directly with each other.

In another embodiment, a ping could only be sent to 1Q members when amutually beneficial relationship exists. For instance, if a first 1Qmember is a lawyer and is looking for an investor, and a second 1Qmember is an investor and is looking for a lawyer and they are within apredefined geographic radius of each other, then they both will receivea ping simultaneously to perform an ad hoc consultation for each other.In this scenario, both 1Q members may have to pay compensationtoactually receive the profile information of the actual individual whothey are requesting to meet. However, other payment options andscenarios can be available to facilitate the transaction.

In yet another embodiment, the 1Q system can help people toself-identify where they have not done so previously. For instance, a 1Qmember may send out a poll wanting to know “who are the males betweenthe ages 25-27 that like dogs within a 5-mile radius.” The 1Q systemthen determines which other 1Q members meet that criteria. However, if alower than expected number or no results are returned at all, yet thereare definitely males between the ages of 25-27 within the 5-mile radiuswho have not self-identified as dog lovers, it may be possible to sendthe identified males a follow-up question to solicit the needed info. Inthis particular scenario, the follow-up question to males between theages of 25-27 within a 5-mile radius would say, “do you like dogs?”Based on their responses, the 1Q system has helped some of the males toself-identify so that the 1Q member requesting the data will have a goodsample set. The 1Q system may also prompt those who self-identify asdog-lovers to include this information in their profile data. If the 1Qsystem enters this data into the member's profile or otherwise receivesan indication that the member has updated their profile, the 1Q systemmay increase the member's online query priority to increase thelikelihood that the member will receive online queries and promotions.The increase in online query priority may apply to the member generallyor specifically for online queries and promotions related to dogs.

The situational awareness system can also assist in building subjectmatter of interest profiles for members using location trackinginformation. Members who participate in the system activate locationtracking on their mobile devices and provide the system with real-timeaccess to the location tracking data. The situational awareness systemanalyzes a member's location tracking data, detects potential subjectmatters of interest for the member based on the location tracking data,and then prompts the member to update their profile data to include thedetected potential subject matters of interest. If the member adds asuggested subject matter to their profile, the situational awarenesssystem includes the member in situational awareness information providedto requesters seeking information concerning members interested in theadded subject matter. The situational awareness system may also directonline queries to the member relating to the added subject matter andincrease the member's priority for participating in online queries. Themember has a financial incentive to authorize location tracking and addsubject matters of interest to their profile in order to increase theirability to earn compensation by participating in compensation-basedonline queries.

It should be noted that along with the ability to determine specificsets of persons based on their location, personal data and subjectmatter of interest information, there will inherently arise a need forsecurity governing the use and inclusion of such information insituational awareness information provided to third-party requesters. Tominimize nefarious activity, certain parameters or restrictions can beplaced on how and what type of information is obtained. For instance, amother may want to know how many children between the ages of 9-12 areon the playground so that she can decide to take her 10-year-old childthere if the age personal data aligns with the age of her child.However, a pedophile may want to use the same information for nefariousreasons. There are several ways to address the above situations. Tocombat the potential problem, the 1Q system aligns certain data pointsto mitigate nefarious activity. For instance, if the request for thenumber of 9-12 year olds comes from a person outside of a specific agebracket, then the request can be denied. In this instance, the requestwill be denied because the mother is not within the age bracket of 9-12.However, if the request came from her child or the child's mobiledevice, the request would be granted because he is of the personal datafor which information is being requested. The child's age could possiblybe confirmed via biometric data associated with his mobile device. Anadditional layer of security can utilize biometric data. For instance,in the above-noted example the 10-year-old is able to determine aspecific personal data related to children who are between the ages of9-12 because he is of that personal data, therefore biometricinformation can be used to confirm that the 10-year-old is actually ofthe personal data which he is querying. The biometric data can comprisefingerprints, retina scans, digital photographs, etc. The situationalawareness system compares biometric data received from situationalawareness requesters to verified biometric data stored by the system toprevent unauthorized access to situational awareness information.

In another embodiment, the information might be restricted altogether,meaning that it would never be appropriate to provide data on anyonebelow the age of 15. Alternatively, external data can be used toreconcile the information to determine if providing the information isappropriate. For instance, a pedophile has to register with the localgovernment agency under a disclosure law. This information would then besent to 1Q or pulled from external sources (e.g., public offenderdatabase, social media) so that personal data information of anyoneunder the age of 21 is never presented to a registered pedophile.

In another embodiment, the 1Q system can leverage maximum and minimumdata for security measures. For instance, a 1Q user in a room with only3 other 1Q users can check the 1Q system to determine how many peoplewithin 10 feet of him are Republicans. Because the 1Q system can set amandatory minimum for certain sensitive data points, the query may comeback as null or not enough persons. The minimum may require that therebe at least 10 people present for this type of data to be divulged.However, there could also be an end-around where the 3 other 1Q usershave indicated that they do not care if anyone specifically knows theyare Republicans. Therefore, if all 3 users or some subset of the usershave waived their right to this security measure, then the info can bepresented to the 1Q user who has requested it. Additionally, a 1Q membermay be super secretive about their party affiliation and feels that evenwith the 10-person minimum, there are still too few people in the roomfor him to feel comfortable and he would like the minimum to be no lessthan 15. In this scenario, the 1Q member can have the opportunity tostore this type of data as a part of his profile, so that if thesituation ever arises, instead of the system defaulting to the 10-personminimum, the system will go to a 15-person minimum, thereby facilitatinga higher level of protection. The system can have the ability to acceptthe highest level of protection requested by any user in a group ofusers, extrapolate any outliers, or average the requested protectionlevels. In the case of an average, the system can indicate such to thepersons with a security protection level higher than that of the averageso that he/she will know that the defaulted security level is less thanwhat he/she anticipated.

Additionally, the system can suggest polling parameters in response toan indication that certain information is restricted due to securityreasons. For example, if a member requests to know all of the personswithin a 10-foot radius that are Democrats and there are only three 1Qmembers in the room and there is a security minimum of 10, then the 1Qsystem might suggest that the requestor expand his search area to a30-foot area where the system has already determined that there are atleast 10 Democrats within the 30-foot range.

A member can also choose to go into stealth mode by limiting theinformation that is available about them based on a specific geographiclocation, time of day, etc. For instance, a member's profile can listthat she is a Falcons fan, but because she works for a company that doesa lot business with the Dallas Cowboys she can go into stealth mode fromthe hours of 9 am-5 pm when she is on business travel in Dallas.Therefore, when she is in the presence of the Dallas Cowboys, theycannot poll 1Q to determine or verify that she is indeed a Falcons fan.The security features may include requiring a security identifier, suchas a password or a bio identifier, as a condition to providingsituational awareness information. The system may also restrictsituational awareness information to data pertaining to members thathave created a permission setting or responded to an “opt-in” promptauthorizing data from their profile to be included in the situationalawareness information. Situational awareness information may also bedenied to requesters identified as public offenders in a public offenderdatabase. Situational awareness information may also be restricted byaccess rules specified in a security rule base. For example, requestersenrolled in a particular university may only be allowed to obtainsituational awareness information about other students enrolled in theuniversity. Many different types of groups may be reflected inenrollment databases used to control situational awareness information,such as corporate employees, church groups, meet-up groups, and thelike. As another example, the system may also impose security accessrules based on the age of the requester and the age of a personal dataprofile of interest identified in the situational awareness request.Individual members may define, activate and deactivated security rulesand permission settings on an as-needed basis giving each member theability to control the use of their profile data in situationalawareness information provided to third-party requesters.

One particular illustrative example of the situational awareness system,including an optional polling feature, is described below with referenceto the appended figures. It should be understood that this particularexample, and the user interface screens, are simplified for the purposeof illustrating the principles of the disclosure. Many other details,features and options will become apparent to those skilled in the artonce the principles of the disclosure are appreciated.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual illustration of a situational awareness system10, which may be deployed as a set of features of the previouslydescribed instant response system. The system allows a requesting device11, typically associated with a customer or member of the instantresponse system, to submit a “situational awareness request” and inresponse receive “situational awareness information” about other memberswithin a target member segment defined by the situational awarenessrequest. The situational awareness request includes one or more ofgeographical, personal data, and subject matter awareness informationdefining the target member segment. The situational awarenessinformation includes data representing the members corresponding to therequest referred to as the “target member segment.” The datarepresenting the target member segment, such as personal datastatistics, may be presented to the requester on a geographicrepresentation of the geographic area of interest defined by therequest. The situational awareness information is typically providedanonymously by providing personal data statistics of the target membersegment without divulging the identities of the individual members ofthe target member segment. The identities of specific members, theability to send online requests to specific members, and/or the abilityto communicate directly with specific members may be granted with the“opt-in” consent of the specific members of the target member segment.

To illustrate one specific example, a situational awareness requestsubmitted by the requesting device 11 to a situational awareness server12 identifies a geographic area of interest 13 defined as a radiusaround the current location of the requesting device. Each memberprofile participating in the situational awareness system is representedby the mobile devices shown within the area of interest 13. Toparticipate in the situational awareness system, these devices areactivated to provide location data to the situational awareness server12. Each member device is associated with a member profile that includespersonal data and subject matter of interest data for the correspondingmember. The geographic location, personal data and subject matter ofinterest member profile data is stored in the member's social media dataor in an instant response app running on the member's device, which isusually a smartphone. In addition to the geographic data defining thegeographical area of interest, the situational awareness requestsubmitted by the requesting device 11 includes personal data defining apersonal data profile of interest and subject matter of interest datadefining a subject matter of interest. The target member segmentcorresponding to these criteria is identified by comparing the memberprofile data for all of the participating members within the area ofinterest 13 to the personal data profile of interest and the subjectmatter of interest included in the situational awareness request.

The member devices 14 a-n with member profile data 15 a-n correspondingto the situational awareness request form the target member segmentcorresponding to the situational awareness request. The situationalawareness server 12 presents the requesting device 11 with situationalawareness information, which typically includes personal data statisticsrepresenting the member profile data 15 a-n of the target member segmenton a graphical representation of the geographic area of interest 13shown on a map encompassing the geographic area of interest. While thisarea is shown as a circle on a blank field to avoid cluttering thedisplay, the situational awareness results may be superimposed on anunderlying map. The geographic area of interest 13 may also correspondto a political subdivision, such as a country, region, state, county,city, zip code and the like. The geographic area of interest 13 may alsocorrespond to one or more establishments, such as a stadium, officebuilding, golf course, and so forth. These criteria may so be combined,for example to specify all golf courses in a particular state, or alloffice buildings in a particular zip code, and so forth.

Providing on-demand situational awareness including statistical personaldata representing anonymous target member segments as described above isan important advantage in its own right. As the member database expandsto the point where it fairly represents the population in general, agreat deal of information can be instantly gleaned based on varioustarget member segments that any member or customer can define on the flyusing only their mobile device. For example, a requester may instantlydetermine the male-to-female ratio, age, ethnic, educational,professional, and sports fan makeup of the patrons in a particularestablishment before setting foot in the premises. As another example,the requester may instantly determine similar information for anapartment complex, office building or college campus. Providing anassessment of personal data and subject matter of interest statisticsfor the general population in a particular geographic area based on thesituational awareness information for system members in that particulararea can be a very effective tool for an advertiser. Than informationcan be effectively used, for example, when purchasing print, directmail, radio, television, online or other types of communicationsdirected to the general population in that geographic area. For example,an analysis indicating that 60% of the system members in a particulargeographic area meet a particular personal data or subject matter ofinterest criteria (e.g., income level) may be considered to be a goodindication that a similar proportion of the general population in thegeographic area meet that criteria.

Once a target member segment has been identified, the situationalawareness system provides a range of additional functionality, typicallyon an opt-in basis for members of the target member segment that agreeto participate. For example, the requester may send an online request,promotional offers, chat requests, personal meetings, and othercommunications based on or requesting access to the identities ofmembers of the target member segment that have opted-in for thisservice. A range of security features may be implemented to protect thetarget member segment from harassment and nefarious activity, such aschecking information about the request and the requester against anaccess rule base to determine whether to permit or reject a particularrequest.

Members may be also invited to update their member data profiles basedon an analysis of their location data as a way to increase theirvisibility to online query submitters. This can increase the member'sonline query priority and ability to earn income by responding to onlinequeries, and also avail the member to targeted online communicationswhile they are present in specific venues. Members may also be promptedto activate location reporting or permission to receive online queriesbased on their location to enable them to participate in online queries,promotions or other programs. For example, a member with locationreporting turned on may receive a prompt to receive grocery shoppingrelated online queries and promotions while they are present in agrocery store. As another example, a member may receive a prompt toparticipate in online queries and promotions when they are presentwithin a stadium so that they can participate in online programsrelating to the event taking place at the stadium. Similarly, a membermay receive a prompt to participate in golf related online queries andpromotions when they are present on a golf course. As another example, amember may receive a prompt to participate in tourism related onlinequeries and promotions when they are away from their home city orpresent at a tourist attraction. Shortly after touching down at a skiresort, for example, a member may be prompted to authorize ski relatedonline queries and promotions, such as coupons for lift tickets,equipment rentals and restaurants in the resort area.

The situational awareness server 12 provides the central processor ofthe system, while each member and customer only needs a mobile device,such as a smartphone, to participate. Each member and customer devicetypically utilizes an app (e.g., the 1Q app) downloaded onto the device,although member devices may be configured to participate using only astandard browser, text functionality, and access to the member's socialmedia profile. Member devices expose profile data, which includesgeo-location data to participate in location-based situational awarenessservices, on a permission basis. The member's profile data may be storedin a social media profile or the instant response app, which isspecially configured to store detailed personal data and subject matterof interest data to enhance the member's ability to participate in theinstant response system. The situational awareness system 12 provides awealth of functionality that members and customers can access on amenu-driven, self-service basis including, but not limited to, membersand customer enrolment, situational awareness, online query submission,statistical and display analysis of online query results, members andcustomer instant compensation, dashboard graphical display with mapoverlays, report generation, member profile data collection andanalysis, location tracking, member communication for opt-in situationalawareness and online query participation, member profile development,opt-in chat and other types of direct contact, and a range of securityfeatures. It should be appreciated that the situational awareness systemis an extraordinarily powerful platform with an enormous range ofpotential features and applications. This disclosure only describes asmall selection of those potential features and applications todemonstrate the principles of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a logic flow diagram 20 for provisioning a situationalawareness system for identifying target member segments based ongeographic, personal data and subject matter of interest data. Once thesituational awareness system is configured as described in FIG. 2, itwill be ready to run for member and customer services as described withreference to FIG. 3. Although a computing system could provision thesystem, the configuring entity will be referred to as the “enrollmentsystem” for descriptive convenience.

In step 21, the enrolment system obtains situational awareness systemmembers to create a large database of system members. Members typicallyenter into pay-per-response agreements where they agree to respond toonline queries in exchange for a per-response payment for each responseaccepted by the situational awareness system (e.g., $1 per response).The member earns cash by responding to online queries in exchange forallowing the situational awareness system to access their member dataprofiles, which is referred to as compensation-based andpermission-based member participation. Members create detailed personaldata profiles (e.g., gender, age, race, domicile location, job location,education level, employment type, income level, family information,political preference, political party registration, religion, etc.) anddetailed subject matter profiles indicating subject matter areas ofinterest (e.g., college sports affiliation, professional sports teamaffiliation, hobbies, type of residence, type of automobile, preferredshopping venues, preferred entertainment, etc.). Members are encouragedto provide highly detailed profile data and respond frequently andpromptly to online queries in order to increase their query priority,which takes these factors into account when prioritizing members forinclusion in online queries. This financial incentive is highlyeffective in building a large database of members who are eager toparticipate. The member profile data is typically stored in a socialmedia or situational awareness system data profile created with aspecial purpose app (e.g. 1Q app) downloaded onto the member's mobiledevice.

In order to participate in location-based situational awarenessservices, the member can also activate location tracking, provide thesituational awareness system with access to the member's location data,and authorize use of the member's location data. The authorization mayinclude one or more of (a) receiving geographic, personal data andsubject matter of interest awareness information, (b) receivinglocation-based online queries, (c) receiving location-based onlinepromotions, (d) participating in location-based online meet-ups, and (e)allowing their location data to be anonymously used in the situationalawareness system aggregate member database. Members are incentivized toparticipate in location-based services in order to increase theirpotential earnings and to gain the benefit of being able to utilize thegeographic, personal data and subject matter of interest awarenessservices themselves. Many members are expected to find the ability toreceive situational awareness information by itself to be sufficientmotivation to grant access to their location data even if they are notinterested in participating in other location-based services.

In step 22, the enrolment system obtains situational awareness customersto create a large database of system customers. Customers enter intopay-per-response agreements where they agree to pay a per-response feeto create and submit online queries that they submit through thesituational awareness system (e.g., $2 per response). Customers receiveaccess to the situational awareness menu-driven system for creatingonline queries and defining target member segments (e.g., geographicarea of interest, personal data profile of interest, and subject matterarea of interest). Customers are then able obtain to geographic,personal data and subject matter of interest awareness and use thisinformation to send location-based online queries to target membersegments that they identify themselves as they use the situationalawareness system.

Steps 23 through 25 describe the process for allowing enrolled customersto define target member segments and submit online queries. In step 23,the enrolment system provides the enrolled customers and members withaccess to a menu-driven system for defining target member segments forsituational awareness requests, which includes defining one or more of ageographic areas of interest, a personal data profile of interest, and asubject matter area of interest. Illustrative and simplified examples ofmenu-driven interfaces for these purposes are shown in FIG. 4 (define ageographic area of interest), FIG. 5 (define a personal data profile ofinterest), and FIG. 6 (define a subject matter area of interest). Instep 24, the enrolment system provides enrolled customers with access toa menu-driven system for creating online queries and query parameters.An illustrative and simplified example of this menu-driven interface isshown FIG. 7 (define online query and query parameters). In step 25, theenrolment system provides enrolled members with an opt-in panel forauthorizing participation in the location-based services. Anillustrative and simplified example of this menu-driven interfacedesigned to illustrate the principles of this aspect of the embodimentof the disclosure is shown FIG. 8.

In step 26, the enrolment system provides enrolled customers with accessto a “results dashboard” that allows customers to view online queryresults in a wide range of useful ways. Illustrative and simplifiedexamples of results display screens are shown FIGS. 9 and 10. In step27, the enrolment system provides enrolled customers with access to a“report generator” that allows customers to create and download reportsdescribing online queries at their own discretion. In step 28, theenrolment system implements the financial arrangements suitable forautomatically paying members (e.g., one dollar per response) andcharging customers (e.g., two dollars per response) on a per-responsebasis to enable customer and member-driven operation of the situationalawareness system without the involvement of a system administrator on aquery-by-query basis. This typically involves setting up a credit card,Paypal® or electronic transfer to a bank account to charge customers,and a Paypal or electronic transfer to a bank account to pay members.The compensation preferably works automatically so that humanintervention is not required for each customer charge and member paymenttransaction.

Once the situational awareness system has been configured as describedabove with reference to FIG. 2, the system may be operated by membersand customers without human intervention except when needed for customerand member support on a case-by-case basis. FIG. 3 is a logic flowdiagram 30 for operating the situational awareness system includinggeographic, personal data and subject matter of interest awareness. Instep 31-33, a requesting customer provides the situational awarenesssystem with a situational awareness request defining a target membercriteria for identifying a target member segment corresponding to thosecriteria. In this example, in step 31, the system receives a geographicdefinition identifying a geographic area of interest. In step 32, thesystem receives a personal data definition identifying a personal dataprofile of interest. And in step 33, the system receives a subjectmatter of interest definition identifying a subject matter of interest.In step 34A, the system obtains access to member profile data, which mayinclude prompting members to turn on location reporting in order toparticipate in the situational awareness system. In step 35, the systemcompares the target segment criteria to the member profiles of theparticipating members within the geographic area of interest to identifythe target member segment. The system then displays data representingthe target member segment for review by the requester. For example, thesystem may display dots or shades of color representing the generallocations or density of the member devices in the target member segmenttogether with personal data statistics of the target member segment on agraphic representation of the geographic area of interest overlaid on amap encompassing the geographic area of interest. The requester may beable to zoom-in to obtain more precise location information only forindividual members that have activated a permission setting or providedopt-in permission authorizing their location data to be disclosed inthis manner.

If the requesting customer wants to go beyond situational awareness andcontact members of the target member system, in step 36 the systembroadcasts an opt-in inquiry to the target member segment prompting themembers to participate in online queries. This may include encouragingmembers of the target member system to participate by identifying thesubject matter of interest, indicating whether promotions will beoffered, identifying the requester (if authorized by the requester),reminding the members that they can earn compensation by opting-in andresponding to online queries, and so forth. In step 34A, the systemreceives op-in authorizations and in step 37 the system displays datarepresenting the opt-in member segment to the requester. At this point,the requester may be prompted to change the target member criteria ifdeemed advantageous to garner a larger opt-in member segment. Forexample, the requester may be prompted to enlarge the geographic area ofinterest or broaden the personal data profile of interest or the subjectmatter of interest if the size of the opt-in member segment is below acertain threshold.

Once an acceptable opt-in member segment has been identified, in step 38the system receives an online query and query parameters. In step 39,the system implements the online query in accordance with the queryparameters and displays the results. In general, this includestransmitting the online query to the opt-in member segment, receivingresponses, displaying the query results, compiling a report containing astatistical analysis of query, charging the requesting customer, andpaying those members that submitted accepted responses. The query may beimplemented in the manner described in U.S. application Ser. No.13/781,744 with the results displayed in the manner described in U.S.application Ser. No. 14/285,803, which are incorporated by reference.Security measures may also be applied as described with reference toFIGS. 14-15.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual illustration of a menu-driven graphical userinterface panel 40 for geographical definition in the situationalawareness system. The panel 40 allows the user to select three types ofgeographic areas, which may be joined with Boolean operators. The firstselection section 41 allows the user to select a radius around aparticular location in selected units, such as feet or miles. The usercan select the current location of the device being used to enter therequest provided that the requesting device has location reportingturned on. The user can also enter any other location recognized by thesystem, such as an address or longitude and latitude definition. Thesecond selection item 42 allows the user to select a politicalsubdivision, such as a country, state, city, county or zip code. Thethird selection section 43 allows the user to select a type ofestablishment, such as golf courses, stadiums, office buildings, and soforth. The geographical selections may be joined by Boolean operators todefine composite definitions of geographical areas of interest, such asall stadiums in the state of Georgia, all golf courses in Fulton County,or all restaurants within five miles of the requester's currentlocation.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual illustration of a menu-driven graphical userinterface panel 50 for personal data definition in the situationalawareness system. The system benefits from prompting users to enterdetailed personal data that customers can then use to hone in onspecific target member segments. This particular example allows membersto enter detailed personal data including sex, age, race, maritalstatus, education, occupation, income, political party preference, andreligious affiliation. Additional personal data detail can be specifiedand added in response to prompts posed by customers that want toidentify members meeting specific personal data criteria. For example, aspecific customer may want to identify members who are cancer survivorsto participate in an online query in exchange for certain compensation.The system may broadcast a query to the membership asking members whomeet the criteria to self-identify in exchange for the ability toparticipate in queries directed to cancer survivors in exchange for theoffered compensation. The category “cancer survivor” would then be addedto the profiles of members who opt-in to the category. The member'sparticipation would typically be provided on an anonymous basis unlessthey opt-in for individual contact at some point further in the process.Many different target member segments can be identified in this manner,such as members with school age children, members who are registered tovote in primaries, or any other qualities of interest. As anotherexample, special purpose groups and enrolment lists may be defined on anas-needed basis. For example, a school class may create a specialpurpose group and enrolment list for tracking and communicating withstudents on a field trip. A family may create a special purpose groupand enrolment list for tracking and communicating with family members ona vacation. A company may create a special purpose group and enrolmentlist for tracking and communicating with employees and contractorsworking on a job site. A medical testing lab may create a specialpurpose group and enrolment list for patients participating in a drugtrial. A political action group may create a special purpose group andenrolment list for supporters participating in a political campaign, agovernment agency may create a special purpose group and enrolment listfor persons participating in a program managed by the agency, and soforth.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual illustration of a menu-driven graphical userinterface panel 60 for subject matter of interest definition in thesituational awareness system. All of the prompts described in thisdisclosure are designed to be sent by text message, but may also be sentby email or any other suitable medium. This particular example promptsmembers to enter subject matter of interest data in several categories,including preference indications for college, sports, sports team,automobile, hobby, and several keywords. Many different target membersegments can be identified in this manner, such as members that like togo to movies, members that ride bicycles frequently, members that ownparticular types of cars, members that own their own homes, members whohave consumed certain products, and so forth. Again, additional subjectmatter of interest details can be specified and added in response toprompts posed by customers that want to identify members with specificinterests.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual illustration of a menu-driven graphical userinterface panel 70 for online query definition in the situationalawareness system. This particular example includes a question definitionsection 71 where the requester enters a question up to a predefinednumber of characters. The requester also enters up to fivemultiple-choice answers, each up to a predefined number of characters. Aquery parameter section 72 allows the requester to enter a minimumnumber of responses, a maximum number of responses, and a maximum queryduration period. The system displays the maximum query cost, typicallybased on the maximum number of responses entered for the query and therequesting customer's per-response cost. Once the requester is satisfiedwith the query definition and parameters, they select “submit” to launchthe query,

FIG. 8 is a conceptual illustration of a menu-driven graphical userinterface panel 80 for opt-in participation in online queries in thesituational interest awareness system. The interface pane; 80 may beused to prompt a member identified as part of a target member segment to“opt-in” to participate in online-queries and to set parameters forparticipating in online queries generally. Selection item 81 allows themember to opt-in for a particular online query on an identified subjectmatter of interest. Section item 82 allows the member to opt-ingenerally for all queries that they qualify for without having to opt-inon a query-by-query basis. Section item 83 allows the member to enter a“stealth mode” disabling online queries. Selection item 84 allows themember to authorize disclosure of their basic personal data (e.g.,gender, age and race) in connection with authorized online queries.Selection item 85 allows the member to authorize disclosure of theirdetailed personal data in connection with authorized online queries(e.g., education level, profession, income level, politicalaffiliation). Selection item 86 allows the member to authorizedisclosure of personal data and subject matter of interest data in theirsocial media profile in connection with authorized online queries.Selection item 87 allows the member to authorize promotional offersdirected to a target member segment that includes the member. In thisexample, the member is prompted to separately authorize promotions bytext message, email and telephone contact. Selection item 88 allows themember to authorize personal chat requests directed to a target membersegment that includes the member. Selection item 87 allows the member toauthorize personal contact requests directed to a target member segmentthat includes the member.

FIG. 9 is a conceptual illustration of graphical presentation 90 ofonline query results in the situational awareness system. Display panel91 shows personal data for the target market segment. In this example,the personal data includes the target market segment size, the agedistribution, the male-to-female ratio, and the percentage of the targetmarket segment that has authorized promotional offers. Basic personaldata may be provided without charge while higher levels of personal datacould be provided for compensation. The personal data allows therequester to immediately ascertain the size and personal data makeup ofthe target market segment corresponding to the parameters specified bythe requester before taking additional steps, such as sending an onlinequery or promotional offers to the target market segment, whichtypically incurs compensation. Knowing the size and personal data makeupof the target market segment helps the requester frame appropriate queryparameters before sending out queries. Display panel 92 shows arepresentation of the target market segment on a graphic representationof the geographical area of interest, in this example the United States.The members of the target market segment may be illustrated by pins (asin this example), dots, color shades, or any other suitablerepresentation of response density. Additional display panels 93 showgraphical representations of various personal data statistics of thetarget market segments. FIG. 10 is a conceptual illustration 100 of analternate graphical presentation of online query results in thesituational awareness system. In the example, the same statistics shownin the form of pie charts in FIG. 9 are displayed as histograms in FIG.10.

Additional illustrative examples of graphical user interface formats andfeatures that can be used to display situational awareness informationare shown and described in U.S. application Ser. No. 14/285,803, whichis incorporated by reference. The graphical user interface systempresents real-time progress information and online query results inconcise at-a-glance formats. The user interface makes the systemintuitively easy for non-trained personnel to use, both as polldesigners and as poll respondents. The at-a-glance user interfacescreens allow system participants to easily enroll as pay-per-responsemembers and customers. Simple and intuitive user interfaces allowparticipants to easily and quickly answer multiple-choice online querieson their smartphones and other common user communication devices. Theat-a-glance user interface screens for online query designers allow thedesigners to easily define online queries, monitor results in real-time,and view the results on geographic and personal data bases. Takentogether, the highly intuitive, easy-to-use, and easy-to-understandcustomer and member user interface screens enable broad enrollment andparticipation by a much wider audience that conventional market pollingand research systems.

FIG. 11 is a logic flow diagram 110 for prompting a member to updatetheir member profile based on monitored location data to participate insituational awareness services and increase their online query priority.Obtaining location data about a member's mobile device allows the memberto be included in situational awareness data provided to customers andother members. In step 111, the situational awareness system prompts themember to activate location reporting on the member's mobile device andauthorize the situational awareness system to monitor and use themember's location data. In step 112, the situational awareness systemcollects location data from the member's mobile device or social mediaprofile. In step 113, the situational awareness system analyzes themember's location data to identify potential subject matters ofinterest. In step 114, the situational awareness system prompts themember to update their member profile data to include one or morepotential subject matters of interest suggested by the system. In step115, the situational awareness system receives an indication that themember's profile has been updated to include a subject matter ofinterest suggested by the system. This may involve the system or themember updating the member's profile data so long at the system becomesaware of the profile update.

In step 116, the situational awareness system may prompt the member toauthorize the member's location and/or profile data to be included insituational awareness information related to the added subject matter ofinterest. This authorization generally acknowledges that the memberunderstands that one or more of their location, personal data, andsubject matter of interest data from their online profile will beanonymously provided to situational awareness requesters as part ofstatistics representing target member segments. In step 117, thesituational awareness system receives a situational awareness requestfrom a third-party requester (i.e., a member or customer other than themember) related to the added subject matter of interest. In step 118,the system includes data pertaining to the member in situationalawareness information provided to the requester.

In step 119, the situational awareness system prompts the member toauthorize online queries and promotions related to the added subjectmatter of interest based the analysis of their location data. Forexample, if the member is found to be frequently present on golfcourses, they may be prompted to add “golf” as an area of interest intheir member profile data, authorize online queries related to golf, andauthorize promotions related to golf. Similarly, a member found to befrequently present in a particular XYZ grocery store may be prompted toadd “XYZ grocery shopper” as an area of interest in their member profiledata, authorize online queries related to shopping at the XYZ grocerystore, and authorize promotions related to shopping at the XYZ grocerystore. Another user found to be frequently present in at football gamesmay be prompted to add “football fan” as an area of interest in theirmember profile data, authorize online queries related to football, andauthorize promotions related to football. As another option, this mayinclude providing the member with a link to “click through” to an onlinedestination specified by the requester.

In step 121, the situational awareness system receives updatedauthorizations from the member. In step 122, the situational awarenesssystem updates the member's profile data to reflect the updatedauthorizations, which typically includes subject matter of interest dataidentified from analyzing the member's location data, online queryauthorizations related to those subject matters of interest, andpromotions related to those subject matters of interest. Online queriesare typically sent to the member's mobile device by text message, whilethe user may be able to select different modes of communication forpromotions, such as text message, email and telephone contact. In step123, the situational awareness system increases the member's onlinequery priority to reflect that member's expressed interest inparticipating in online queries relating to the added subject matter ofinterest. In step 124, the situational awareness system transmits onlinequeries to the member based on the increased query priority, whichincreases the member's ability to earn compensation by participating inonline queries. This improves the efficiency of subsequent onlinequeries by directing queries to those members that have indicated aninterest in participating.

As another option, in step 125, the situational awareness system mayreceive a request for the member's direct contact information from therequester of the situational awareness information. In step 126, thesituational awareness system prompts the member to authorize delivery ofthe member's direct contact information to the requester of thesituational awareness information. In step 127, the situationalawareness system receives the authorization of the member to deliver themember's direct contact information to the requester of the situationalawareness information. In step 128, the situational awareness systemdelivers the member's direct contact information to the requester of thesituational awareness information, such as the member's email address,social media address, or mobile telephone number. This can beparticularly useful when requester's objective is to identify members toparticipate in a telephone interview or other type of directcommunication.

FIG. 12 is a conceptual illustration of a menu-driven graphical userinterface panel 120 for prompting a member to update their memberprofile based on monitored location data to increase their online querypriority. This allows the member to update their data profile based onan analysis of their location data performed by the situationalawareness system. In this particular example, the prompt begins with aninformational message, “greetings valued instant response system member.We have noticed that you like to earn income by responding to onlinequeries and have location services turned on to enhance your querypriority. Thank you for being such a great member! Did you know that youcan increase your query priority and earning potential even more byupdating your instant response profile to indicate your areas ofinterest? it is easy, just click here [link] to go to your profile.” Theillustrative prompt continues, “we have made updating your profile eveneasier! We noticed from your location data that you often go to movietheaters. Let us know if you would like to automatically update yourinstant response profile as show below:”. The prompt then providesselection items allowing the member to “update profile to show that I ama movie buff”; “please send me movie related promotions”; and/or “pleaseinclude my profile data in the anonymous instant response database.”

FIG. 13 is a logic flow diagram 130 for creating and using an aggregatelocation-aware member profile database to provide geographic, personaldata and subject matter of interest awareness. In some cases, arequester may be interested in obtaining situational awarenessinformation based on an approximation of the total population in anarea. To meet this need, the situational awareness system utilizes acombination of real-time data, stored historical data, and generalpersonal data statistics. In step 131, the situational awareness systemcollects location monitoring data from a wide range of member profiles.In step 132, the situational awareness system combines locationmonitoring data with member profile data to create location-aware memberprofile data. In step 133, the situational awareness system aggregatesthe location-aware member profile data from a large number of membersinto a location-aware member profile database, and may scale orotherwise adjust the data to considered representative of the generalpopulation. In step 134, the situational awareness system receives asituational awareness request, such as a target member segment requestspecifying one or more of a geographical area of interest, a personaldata profile of interest, and a subject matter area of interest. In step135, the situational awareness system obtains real-time situationalawareness data for the target member segment from member mobile devicesthat actually correspond to the situational awareness request. In step136, the situational awareness system displays data representing thetarget member segment based on the real-time situational awareness data.In step 137, the situational awareness system compares the situationalawareness request to the location-aware member profile database toidentify corresponding members based on the recorded historical data inthe database. In step 138, the situational awareness system displaysdata representing the target member segment based on the recordedhistorical data in the location-aware member profile database, which maybe adjusted to be considered representative of the general population.In step 139, the situational awareness system displays a combination ofthe real-time data and the recorded historical data for the targetmember segment corresponding to the situational awareness request, whichmay be considered representative of the general population in thegeographic area of interest identified in the situational awarenessrequest.

FIG. 14 is a conceptual illustration of a system 140 for providingsecurity when providing access to member profile data. A requestingdevice 141, such as a smartphone, may have to provide a geo-accesspassword to submit an acceptable request. For an increased level ofsecurity, the requesting device 141 may include a biometric reader 142,such as a fingerprint reader, retina scanner or digital camera, toensure that the device is being used by a registered member. Therequesting device 141 places a situational awareness request to asituational awareness server 143, which responds with situationalawareness information provided that applicable security conditions aremet. One security conditions may be that a biometric identifier from thebiometric reader corresponds to a stored biometric identifier for therequester (e.g., member or customer) associated with the mobile devicemaking the request. The situational awareness server 143 may communicatewith member devices corresponding to the situational awareness request,also referred to as the target member segment, as a condition toincluding a member in the situational awareness information provided tothe requester. For a representative member, this typically involveschecking the settings for the member in a member profile database 145 todetermine whether the member has a setting pre-authorizing the member tobe included in the type of situational awareness information requested.For more sophisticated participation rules, rules contained in asecurity rule base 146 may be applied to the member's profile data todetermine whether the member should be included in the situationalawareness information. For example, age limits may be applied, securityrules may exclude certain requesters from receiving information aboutcertain types of members, and special-purpose rules may be defined tolimit situational awareness information to particular groups defined onan as-needed basis. The security clearance process may further includechecking the requester against a public offender database 147 and otherdata systems 148. For example, the data system may be a universityenrollment database, where registered students, but not other types ofrequesters may be permitted to obtain situational awareness informationabout other university students. This may be a desired feature allowingany type of group to limit information to other group members, such asmeet-up groups, church groups, corporate employees, families and thelike. As another example, the other date systems 148 may include flighttracking systems operated by airports and airlines allowing thesituational awareness system to provide airline traveler tracking, asdescribed with reference to FIGS. 16-18.

Opt-in participation is another example security feature. Ifparticipation is not pre-authorized, the situational awareness server143 may send an opt-in request to the member prompting the member toopt-in to the specific request. The member will be included in thesituational awareness information returned to the requester only if themember returns an opt-in response authorizing participation.Sophisticated security rules may be developed and stored in the securityrule base 146 covering a wide range of security access rules andsituational awareness distribution groups developed by and for members.

To provide an illustrative example of the type of security proceduresthat may be implemented, FIG. 15 is a logic flow diagram 150 forproviding security when deciding whether to including a member's profiledata in situational awareness information provided in response to asituational awareness request. In step 151, the situational awarenesssystem receives a request for situational awareness information. In step152, the situational awareness system may receive a geo-access passwordor biometric identifier to the identity of the requester as a conditionto providing situational awareness information to the requester. In step153, the situational awareness system may receive data from a publicoffender database to ensure that the requester is not a registeredoffender as a condition to providing situational awareness informationto the requester. The situational awareness system may also receive datafrom another data system, such as an enrollment database, to ensure thatthe requester is part of a particular group (e.g., college student body,corporate employee, etc.) as a condition to providing situationalawareness information to the requester. In step 154, the situationalawareness system receives real-time location data from mobilecommunication devices associated with system members. Alternatively, oneor more of the mobile communication devices may report the location datato an associated social media file, and the situational awareness systemmay receive the real-time location data from the social media file. Instep 155, the situational awareness system may apply one or more accessrules from the security rule base 146 to the requester's data profile,the member's data profile, the data received from external data files(e.g., public offender database, enrollment database, etc.), or acombination of these resources as a condition to providing situationalawareness information to the requester. In step 156A, the situationalawareness system may exclude member data for members who have activated“stealth mode” to opt-out of situational aware participation. In step156B, the situational awareness system may prompt the requester tomodify the request, for example when the size of the target membersegment is null or too low. The user may then alter geographic, personaldata or subject matter of interest restrictions in an effort to obtain alarger target member segment.

In step 157, if the requester is permitted to receive any situationalawareness data, the situational awareness system provides the permitteddata in the manner previously described. In step 158, the situationalawareness system may receive a requesting to send the target membersegment an online query or promotional offer. In step 159, thesituational awareness system may apply another selection of securitymeasures to decide whether to authorize the online query or promotionaloffer. For example, the situational awareness system may check themember profile data for settings pre-authorizing this type ofcommunication, and may also send opt-in requests to members to promptthe members of the target member segment to authorize the online queryor promotional offer. In step 160, if the requester is permitted to sendthe online query or promotional offer to an authorized member segment,the situational awareness system sends the online query or promotionaloffer in the manner previously described.

FIG. 16 is a logic flow diagram 160 for utilizing the situationalawareness system 140 as an airline traveler tracking system. While manyother options and features may be included in this application, thefollowing disclosure describes the basic features of the airlinetraveler tracking system. Referring to FIG. 16 in combination with FIG.14 showing the system components, in step 161 the situational awarenessserver 113 prompts a traveler to authorizing flight tracking, activatelocation tracking, and provide flight itinerary information. To enableflight tracking, location tracking must typically be activated on themobile device of the person to be tracked. Flight tracking may be turnedon manually or automatically upon activation of flight tracking. Flighttracking may be enabled on a “pull model” basis by a traveler who wantsto authorize another person to track their airline travel, or on a“push” basis in response to a tracking request by the other party. Ineither case, the expressed permission of the person to be tracked istypically required unless prior tracking authorization has beenprovided, for example through parental controls or standinginstructions.

In step 162, the situational awareness server 113 receives flighttracking authorization and information used to track the traveler andthe traveler's flight. This may be accomplished, for example, byreceiving this information through the traveler information userinterface screen 170 shown in FIG. 17. In step 163, the situationalawareness server 113 tracks the location of the tracked traveler andmonitors the departure information of the traveler's flight, for exampleby consulting other data systems 148 shown in FIG. 14 containing airlineschedule and departure information. In step 164, the situationalawareness server 113 may provide the tracking party with ongoingtracking information, for example through the user interface shown inFIG. 18. In step 164A, if the monitored location of the traveler and theflight departure information indicate that the traveler was not in thelocation of the plane at the time of departure, the situationalawareness server 113 provides the tracking party with notification thatthe tracked party missed the flight. The missed flight determinationmany be confirmed by the tracked party's location continuing toavailable after flight departure, which typically requires thetraveler's phone to be turned off. A properly boarded and departedflight will create a recognizable pattern that should be followedwhenever a passenger has boarded a departed flight. Basing the missedflight determination on actual monitored location data and flightdeparture information, as opposed to scheduled flight information,provides an accurate assessment of missed flights. In the unusual eventthat the party boards the flight without their mobile device, the missedflight notification will effectively mean that the traveler's mobiledevice was lost or stolen prior to departure providing a basis forpromptly attempting to recover the mobile device.

If the monitored data indicates that the traveler boarded a flight thatdeparted, in step 165 the situational awareness server 113 provides themonitoring party notification that the flight departed with themonitored traveler onboard. In step 166, the situational awarenessserver 113 monitors the flight arrival information. In step 166A, if thesituational awareness server 113 determines that the fight has beendiverted or delayed, it provides the monitoring party notification thatthe flight has been diverted or delayed. In step 167, if the situationalawareness server 113 determines that the tracked flight has arrived withthe tracked passenger onboard, it provides a flight arrival notificationto the tracking party. In step 168, the situational awareness server 113tracks the location of the tracked passenger at the destination airport,which may aid in passenger pickup. Of course, the arrival and locationof the passenger would be tracked at an alternate airport if the flighthappened to be diverted from its original destination.

FIG. 17 is a conceptual illustration of a traveler information userinterface screen 170 in the airline traveler tracking system. This userinterface screen includes a selection item (e.g., check box) where theparty to be tracked authorizes location tracking and agrees to the termsof the service. The user may also select an item to read the terms, ifdesired. The user interface screen 170 also includes a number ofselection fields (e.g., semi-structured text input fields) where theparty to be tracked enters information for the scheduled flightdeparture, connections and arrival. Other selection items and fields maybe provided as a matter of design choice, such as items and fields foractivating notifications, authorizing standing instructions for trackingparties, authorizing tracking parties for specific flights, enabling ordisabling post-arrival tracking, providing messages such as pick upinstructions to tracking parties, automatically closing flight plans,and so forth.

FIG. 18 is a conceptual illustration of a tracked party information userinterface screen 180 in the airline traveler tracking system. This userinterface screen includes fields identifying the tracked party,traveler's flight, status, destination, and the tracked party's currentlocation. A map may also be displayed, such as a map of the travel routeor airport displaying a marker showing the current location of thepassenger or the passenger's flight. Other items or fields may beprovided as a matter of design choice, such as the ability to pull up apicture of the tracked passenger, which may be helpful for drivers orother receiving parties meeting persons they have not met before. Formilitary applications, for example, the selection items may be providedfor accessing the traveling party's orders, security clearanceinformation, access rights to equipment and facilities, briefingmaterials, and so forth.

FIG. 19 is a conceptual illustration of a user interface screen 190 fora traveler awareness and communication feature of the situationalawareness system 10. The traveler awareness and communication featurediffers from the flight tracking feature descried with reference toFIGS. 17 and 18 in that the traveler awareness and communication featuredoes not require specific flight information provided by specifictraveling parties to specific tracking parties prior to tracked flights.Instead, the traveler awareness and communication feature allows acustomer to define, track, and direct communications to classes ofmembers who meet specified tracking parameters. While the trackedmembers will have to authorize tracking generally and may be required toauthorize traveler awareness tracking to participate in the program,they will not be required to provide specific flight information tospecific tracking parties. This allows product and service providersgenerally to send messages to classes of travelers meeting the specifiedcharacteristic. These messages may include, for example, securityadvisories, travel advisories, weather advisories, promotional offers,information about local attractions, currency exchange, hotels,restaurants, travel agents, and so forth. The traveler awareness andcommunication feature is thus designed to allow a wide range of productand service providers to reach out to defined classes of travelers asthey arrive at their destinations. The app running on the member devicemay permit each member to allow or deny these messages on a case-by-caseand provider-by-provider basis. Certain types of messages, such assecurity, travel and weather advisories may be mandatory or require themember to specifically “opt out” to disable. Other types of messages,such as promotional messages, may require the member to “opt in” priorto receiving these types of messages.

The user interface 190 provides an example of the type of interface thatrequesting parties interested in reaching out to travelers may use toidentify and send communications to classes of travelers meeting certaincharacteristics. In this example, the upper portion of the userinterface 190 allows the requesting party to enter an arrival airportand arrival time window along with an optional departure airport anddeparture time window. The user may also add additional arrival airportsand arrival time windows, and additional departure airports anddeparture time windows, as desired. Upon selection of a “run search”command, the situational awareness server 12 will identify participatingmembers that meet the defined criteria. In particular, the situationalawareness server 12 may identify corresponding members by analyzing thelocation tracking information of participating members and flightinformation available online to identify those member devices withlocation patterns consistent with flying on the identified flights. Forexample, a member traveling from Tampa to Atlanta as illustrated in FIG.19 can be expected to be located at the Atlanta Airport during thearrival window and at the Tampa Airport during the departure window, andwill also have their user device turned off during the associatedflight. The situational awareness server 12 may confirm and adjust theseparameters based on actual flight information to take account of flightdelays, rerouting and so forth.

The lower portion of the user interface 190 allows the requestingcustomer to enter a message to be delivered to travelers meeting thecriteria specified in the upper portion of the user interface. Themessage is usually delivered by text message, which may be the defaultsetting, although each member may have the ability to set the deliverymode generally of for traveler awareness messages specifically. Toaccommodate messages that may be sent out on a pay-per-message basis,the lower portion of the user interface 190 also allows the requestingparty (in this case a customer of the situational awareness system) toset parameters limiting message distribution. In the example, therequesting party may set a maximum number of messages, an expirationtime, and/or a target demographic profile for message recipients.Selecting the “target demographic profile” option may activate anotheruser interface or download a file that allows the requesting party toprecisely define the demographic characteristics of message recipients.This feature may utilize demographic information specified by the useras well as information obtained from other sources. For example,messages may only be directed to persons who have stayed at a particularhotel, visited a particular casino, attended a particular sportingevent, or belong to a particular club or group. This type of group mightinclude, for example, members of hotel loyalty programs, graduates of aparticular university, members of a particular fan club, season ticketholders, persons meeting the characteristics of a convention or otherevent scheduled in the local area, business travelers, touristtravelers, previous customers of a particular business, and so forth.These are only a few examples of a wide range of criteria that customersmay define for pay-per-message access using this feature.

Members who receive responses may take a variety of actions in responseto the received messages. Some messages may be passive, such asadvertisements, while others may have active components. For example,online queries may accept responses in exchange for per-responsecompensation. Messages may also include hotlinks to web pages,downloadable files, phone numbers, and other resources. Messages mayalso prompt the receiving party to send or authorize the situationalawareness system to send personal contact information, for example bysending a text or email opening a communication with the sender oranother entity identified in a message. These are only a few examples ofa wide range of response actions that customers may take in response tomessages received through the traveler awareness and communicationfeature of the situational awareness system.

FIG. 20 is a logic flow diagram 200 for the traveler awareness andcommunication feature of the situational awareness system. In step 201,the situational awareness server 12 receives a definition of targetaudience. For example, the target audience may be defined using theupper portion of the user interface 190 shown in FIG. 19. Step 201 isfollowed by step 202, in which the situational awareness server 12identifies the target audience. This involves analyzing member locationdata and online flight information to identify participating member thatmeet the specified criteria. Step 202 is followed by step 203, in whichthe situational awareness server 12 displays target audience parameters.For example, selection of the “view results” item in the user interface190 shown in FIG. 19 activates and displays the target audienceparameters to assist the user in entering the information. The targetaudience parameters typically indicate the size and may indicatedemographic information about the target audience to help the requestingparty decide whether to proceed with sending message to the targetaudience. At this point, the requesting party may refine the definitionof the target audience, and review the results, until they have defineda target audience suitable for the message that they intend to send.This may be an iterative process. It should also be appreciated thatproviding this level of situational awareness about travelers is avaluable service regardless of whether the requesting party actuallysends out a message.

Step 203 is followed by step 204, in which the situational awarenessserver 12 receives a definition of an online post, such as a query oradvertisement, to be sent to the target audience. For example, theonline post may be defined using the lower portion of the user interface190 shown in FIG. 19. Step 204 is followed by step 205, in which thesituational awareness server 12 may receive online post parameters tocontrol the distribution of the online post. These parameters may alsobe entered using the lower portion of the user interface 190 shown inFIG. 19. Step 205 is followed by step 206, in which the situationalawareness server 12 receives submission instructions and transmits theonline post to participating member devices meeting the specifiedcriteria. Step 206 is followed by step 207, in which the situationalawareness server 12 receives online response data, such as messagemetrics and responses. Step 207 is followed by step 208, in which thesituational awareness server 12 causes the requesting customer's deviceto display the online response data. For example, the response data maybe displayed through the user interface displays shown in FIGS. 9 and 10or other suitable types of displays.

Step 208 is followed by step 209, in which the situational awarenessserver 12 may receive and relay request from a requesting party forpersonal contact information of tracked traveler(s). Step 209 isfollowed by step 210, in which the situational awareness server 12receives and relays authorization to provide personal contactinformation of tracked traveler(s) to requesting party. Step 210 isfollowed by step 211, in which the situational awareness server 12transmits the personal contact information of tracked traveler(s) to therequesting party or transmits the personal contact information ofrequesting party to the tracked traveler(s). For example, this mayinclude sending a text or email message to the requesting party openinga line of communication between the responding member and the requestingparty.

It will be appreciated that the tracking system described above is notlimited to human passengers, but may also be used to track equipment,animals, or any other type of shipped item. It will be furtherappreciated that the system is not limited to flight tracking, but mayalso be used to track parties or items traveling by marine vessel,train, truck, automobile, and so forth.

The present disclosure may be implemented on portable computing devices,which may communicate with a server system providing access to a numberof client systems over a network, or as a dedicated computing system. Assuch, embodiments of the disclosure may comprise adapting orreconfiguring presently existing equipment. Alternatively, originalequipment may be provided embodying the disclosure.

All of the methods described in this disclosure may include storingresults of one or more steps of the method embodiments in anon-transient storage medium. The results may include any of the resultsdescribed in this disclosure and may be stored in any manner known inthe art. The storage medium may include any storage medium described inthis disclosure or any other suitable storage medium known in the art.After the results have been stored, the results can be accessed in thestorage medium and used by any of the method or system embodimentsdescribed in this disclosure, formatted for display to a user, used byanother software module, method, or system, etc. Furthermore, theresults may be stored “permanently,” “semi-permanently,” temporarily, orfor some period of time. For example, the storage medium may be randomaccess memory (RAM), and the results may not necessarily persistindefinitely in the storage medium.

Those having skill in the art will appreciate that there are variousvehicles by which processes and/or systems and/or other technologiesdescribed in this disclosure can be effected (e.g., hardware, software,and/or firmware), and that the preferred vehicle will vary with thecontext in which the processes and/or systems and/or other technologiesare deployed. For example, if an implementer determines that speed andaccuracy are paramount, the implementer may opt for a mainly hardwareand/or firmware vehicle; alternatively, if flexibility is paramount, theimplementer may opt for a mainly software implementation; or, yet againalternatively, the implementer may opt for some combination of hardware,software, and/or firmware. Hence, there are several possible vehicles bywhich the processes and/or devices and/or other technologies describedin this disclosure may be effected, none of which is inherently superiorto the other in that any vehicle to be utilized is a choice dependentupon the context in which the vehicle will be deployed and the specificconcerns (e.g., speed, flexibility, or predictability) of theimplementer, any of which may vary. Those skilled in the art willrecognize that optical aspects of implementations will typically employoptically-oriented hardware, software, and or firmware.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that it is common within the artto describe devices and/or processes in the fashion set forth in thisdisclosure, and then use engineering practices to integrate suchdescribed devices and/or processes into data processing systems. Thatis, at least a portion of the devices and/or processes described can beintegrated into a data processing system via a reasonable amount ofexperimentation. Those having skill in the art will recognize that atypical data processing system generally includes one or more of asystem unit housing, a video display device, a memory such as volatileand non-volatile memory, processors such as microprocessors and digitalsignal processors, computational entities such as operating systems,drivers, graphical user interfaces, and applications programs, one ormore interaction devices, such as a touch pad or screen, and/or controlsystems including feedback loops and control motors (e.g., feedback forsensing position and/or velocity; control motors for moving and/oradjusting components and/or quantities). A typical data processingsystem may be implemented utilizing any suitable commercially availablecomponents, such as those typically found in datacomputing/communication and/or network computing/communication systems.All of the technology described in this disclosure is suitable forimplementation using commercially available computing devices, such asnetwork servers operated by the situational awareness system andsmartphones or personal computers operated by members and customers.These computing devices may be interconnected via the Internet, mobiletelephone voice and data system, or other data suitable network.

This disclosure sometimes illustrates different components containedwithin, or connected with, different other components. It is to beunderstood that such depicted architectures are merely exemplary, andthat in fact many other architectures can be implemented which achievethe same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement ofcomponents to achieve the same functionality is effectively “associated”such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any twocomponents may be combined to achieve a particular functionality can beseen as “associated with” each other such that the desired functionalityis achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components.Likewise, any two components so associated can also be viewed as being“connected”, or “coupled”, to each other to achieve the desiredfunctionality, and any two components capable of being so associated canalso be viewed as being “functionally connected” to each other toachieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of functionalconnection include but are not limited to physical connections and/orphysically interacting components and/or wirelessly communicating and/orwirelessly interacting components and/or logically interacting and/orlogically interacting components.

While particular aspects of the present subject matter have been shownand described in detail, it will be apparent to those skilled in the artthat, based upon the teachings of this disclosure, changes andmodifications may be made without departing from the subject matterdescribed in this disclosure and its broader aspects and, therefore, theappended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes andmodifications as are within the true spirit and scope of the subjectmatter described in this disclosure. Although particular embodiments ofthis disclosure have been illustrated, it is apparent that variousmodifications and embodiments of the disclosure may be made by thoseskilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of thedisclosure. Accordingly, the scope of the disclosure should be limitedonly by the claims appended hereto.

It is believed that the present disclosure and many of its attendantadvantages will be understood by the foregoing description, and it willbe apparent that various changes may be made in the form, constructionand arrangement of the components without departing from the disclosedsubject matter or without sacrificing all of its material advantages.The form described is merely explanatory, and it is the intention of thefollowing claims to encompass and include such changes. The disclosureis defined by the following claims, which should be construed toencompass one or more structures or function of one or more of theillustrative embodiments described above, equivalents and obviousvariations.

1. A method comprising: collecting, by a network device comprising a processor, geographic location data reported by a mobile communication device associated with a member of a situational awareness system; analyzing, by the network device, the geographic location data to identify a topic of interest for the member; prompting, by the network device, the member to update profile data associated with the member to reflect the topic of interest; receiving, by the network device, an indication that the member's profile data has been updated to add the topic of interest; accessing social media data associated with the member and assigning a query priority for the member relating to the added topic of interest based on the member's social media data: receiving, by the network device, a situational awareness request related to the added topic of interest from a requester other than the member; and providing, by the network device, situational awareness information to the requester including data relating to the member.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising changing, by the network device, the query priority assigned to the member in response to determining that the member falls into a particular demographic category.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising prompting, by the network device, the member to authorize online queries relating to the added topic of interest; and prompting by the network device, the member to authorize collection and use of the geographic location data reported by the mobile communication device associated with the member.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the network device, an online query relating to the added topic of interest to the mobile communication device associated with the member.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising, by the network device, causing a response fee to be paid to the member for responding to the online query, and causing a query fee to be charged to a customer that issued the online query.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising changing, by the network device, the query priority assigned to the member relating to the added topic of interest in response to receiving the indication that the member's profile data has been updated to add the topic of interest.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the network device, a request for direct contact information for the member in connection with a situational awareness request related to the added topic of interest from a requester other than the member; prompting, by the network device, the member to authorize communication of the member's direct contact information to the requester of the situational awareness request related to the added topic of interest; receiving, by the network device, authorization from the member authorizing communication of the member's direct contact information to the requester of the situational awareness request related to the added topic of interest; and communicating, by the network device, the member's direct contact information to the requester of the situational awareness request related to the added topic of interest in response to the authorization.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: prompting, by the network device, the member to authorize online promotions relating to the added topic of interest; and transmitting, by the network device, an online promotion relating to the added topic of interest to the mobile communication device associated with the member.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the network device, an online link relating to the added topic of interest to the mobile communication device associated with the member.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the network device, a request for direct contact information associated with the member from the requester of the situational awareness information; prompting, by the network device, the member to authorize delivery of the member's direct contact information to the requester of the situational awareness information; receiving, by the network device, authorization from the member to deliver the member's direct contact information to the requester of the situational awareness information; and sending, by the network device, the member's direct contact information to the requester of the situational awareness information.
 11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing non-transitory computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer system comprising a processor, cause the system to perform operations, comprising: collecting geographic location data reported by a mobile communication device associated with a member of a situational awareness system; analyzing the geographic location data to identify a topic of interest for the member; prompting the member to update profile data associated with the member to reflect the topic of interest; receiving an indication that the member's profile data has been updated to add the topic of interest; accessing social media data associated with the member and assigning a query priority for the member relating to the added topic of interest based on the member's social media data: receiving a situational awareness request related to the added topic of interest from a requester other than the member; and providing situational awareness information to the requester including data relating to the member in response to the situational awareness request.
 12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising: prompting the member to authorize online queries or promotions relating to the added topic of interest; transmitting an online query or promotion relating to the added topic of interest to the mobile communication device associated with the member in response to the authorization; causing a response fee to be paid to the member for responding to the online query; and causing a query fee to be charged to a customer that issued the online query.
 13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising changing the query priority assigned to the member relating to the added topic of interest in response to receiving the indication that the member's profile data has been updated to add the topic of interest.
 14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising: receiving a request for direct contact information for the member in connection with a situational awareness request related to the added topic of interest from a requester other than the member; prompting the member to authorize communication of the member's direct contact information to the requester of the situational awareness request related to the added topic of interest; receiving authorization from the member authorizing communication of the member's direct contact information to the requester of the situational awareness request related to the added topic of interest; and communicating the member's direct contact information to the requester of the situational awareness request related to the added topic of interest in response to the authorization.
 15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising changing, by the network device, the query priority assigned to the member relating to the added topic of interest in response to determining that the member falls into a particular demographic category. 16-20. (canceled)
 21. A method comprising: collecting geographic location data reported by a mobile communication device associated with a member of a situational awareness system; analyzing the geographic location data to identify a topic of interest for the member; prompting the member to update profile data associated with the member to reflect the topic of interest; receiving a situational awareness request related to the topic of interest from a requester; and providing situational awareness information to the requester including demographic statistics for members of the situational awareness system associated with the topic of interest, wherein the member is included in the demographic statistics.
 22. The method of claim 21, further comprising transmitting an online query relating to the added topic of interest to the mobile communication device associated with the member.
 23. The method of claim 22, further comprising receiving an online response to the online query from the mobile communication device associated with the member.
 24. The method of claim 23, further comprising causing a response fee to be paid to the member for responding to the online query, and causing a query fee to be charged to the requester.
 25. The method of claim 24, further comprising changing a query priority assigned to the member relating to the added topic of interest in response to causing the response fee to be paid to the member. 